Free Republic

If you think it’s hard saving for retirement as a couple, trying doing it as a single. According to a study—described by one expert as the most intriguing of 2012—the amount of money singles in their late 60s have saved up for retirement is dramatically less than that of married-couple households. In fact, the median married household had in 2008 nearly 10 times more saved up for retirement than the median single-person household, $111,600 vs. $12,500. (Savings, for the record, included 401(k)s and IRAs and all taxable savings and investment accounts, but it did not include Social Security, pensions, or...

If you watch daytime TV or have been stuck watching daytime TV while visiting your parents, surely you’re familiar with The Scooter Store. The power wheelchair vendor has had some trouble lately, including accusations of Medicare and Medicaid fraud, a raid by the FBI, and even a lawsuit from the company’s hometown, of New Braunfels, Texas. The company laid off most of its employees, and plans to deal directly with health care providers, rather than blanketing the airwaves and selling directly to consumers. Those investigations came after a scathing investigative piece by CBS News about the company. (Warning: the video...

A growing number of House Democrats are concerned that President Obama's proposal to cut Social Security benefits will haunt the party at the polls in 2014. Although Democrats have long-championed the retirement program, they say Obama's plan to reduce payments for future beneficiaries through a chained consumer price index (CPI) has weakened their stance and opened the door for Republicans to vilify the president. The leader of the campaign arm for House Republicans, Rep. Greg Walden (Ore.), on Wednesday called Obama’s plan a "shocking attack on seniors." Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), the former head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign...

The National Council on Aging (NCOA) today launched JobSource, a new online portal to help older adults assess their work skills, identify job training opportunities, and find employment. Last month, 1.8 million adults aged 55+ were actively seeking employment, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nearly half of older workers looking for jobs have been without employment for over a year. “For many older Americans, employment is necessary to remain financially secure, healthy, and independent,” said Nora Dowd Eisenhower, senior vice president of economic security at NCOA. “But as industries and workplaces evolve, it is vital that older adults...

During a forum on gun control in Colorado hosted by The Denver Post, Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) mocked the concerns of a senior citizen who said that his impairments would put him at a significant disadvantage in a firefight under the state’s new gun laws. She drew laughs from the crowd when she reminded the questioner that he can take advantage of the Denver Police Department’s services. She added that, in the hypothetical situation the questioner described, “you’d probably be dead anyway.” At the Tuesday night forum, the elderly questioner described his unique circumstances and asked DeGette about how he...

Though Democrats denied it during the 2012 campaign, Obamacare cut Medicare by $716 billion in order to partially fund $1.9 trillion in new entitlement spending over the next ten years. A big chunk of those Medicare cuts came from the market-oriented Medicare Advantage program. Cleverly, the Obama administration postponed the Medicare Advantage cuts until after the election, so as to persuade seniors that everything would be just fine. But the election is over. On Friday, the administration announced that it would be significantly reducing funding for the popular program. Obama’s proposal, according to one analyst, “would turn almost every plan...

The US Census Bureau, in "The Older Population" indicates that Baby Boomers are defined as follows: 6 The Baby Boom includes people born from mid-1946 to 1964. The Baby Boom is distinguished by a dramatic increase in birth rates following World War II, and is one of the largest generations in U.S. history. For more information, see: Hogan, Perez, and Bell, 2008, Who (Really) Are the First Baby Boomers? In Joint Statistical Meetings Proceedings, Social Statistics Section, Alexandria, VA: American Statistical Association, pp. 1009–1016. You are now from about 50 to 67 years old, and you are the glad result...

Now that Obama has secured another four years in the White House, it is time for the administration to crank out more Obamacare propaganda, specifically arguments about the cost ineffectiveness of keeping old people alive. Enter the internet’s liberal bellwether, Salon.com. Earlier today, the website posted an article by Matthew Yglesias, a blogger and Democrat operative who spent time at the Soros’ project, ThinkProgress. According to Yglesias, old folks are “the key issue in the federal budget” and their welfare accounts “for the remarkable lack of apparent cost effectiveness of the American health care system.” “When the patient is already...

Taro Aso TOKYO, January 23, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The recently-elected government of Japan has made itself heard on the life issues. Finance minister Taro Aso, said on Monday that elderly and financially dependent Japanese have a duty to die quickly to take pressure off the government-funded social service system. “Heaven forbid if you are forced to live on when you want to die,” Aso said. He described elderly people in need of care as “tube people” and complained that it costs “several tens of millions of yen” a month to care for a patient in the final stages of life....

The Worldwide Demographic Cliff Is Going To Be Brutal The EconomistJan. 22, 2013, 8:56 AMTHE post-war generation of baby boomers - those born between 1946 and 1964 - have had a huge appetite on the world, creating "youth culture", changing social attitudes from the sixties onwards, boosting economic growth as they entered the workforce and so on. Now they are starting to retire and this blog had banged on about the effect this will have on issues like pensions, asset markets and economic growth. not to worry, say some folk, since although we may have more elderly to look after,...

A good jobs report? Sure, if one is 55 and over. In December the American jobs gerontocracy continued its relentless course, and as the two charts below summarize since Obama's first term, some 2.7 million jobs in the 16-55 year old category have been lost. The "offset": 4 million jobs for Americans between 55 and 69. For all those young people graduating from college (with $150,000 in student loans) who are unable to get a job, here is our advice: tell your parents, and grandparents, to retire already. Oh wait, they can't because Bernanke destroyed their savings. Oops -...

Michael Moore on Reagan voters: They're dying By: Patrick Gavin December 13, 2012 09:16 AM EST Michael Moore thinks the country is getting better — “I’m very optimistic about the future” — he says, and what explains that? Reagan voters are dying. In a discussion on Current TV about Sheldon Adelson on Wednesday, Moore told host Jennifer Granholm, “Adelson and all those people will be gone, just like the people who voted for Reagan, the older generation that was really behind Reagan.” “If you were 55 or 60 years old in 1980 when Reagan ran, you’re dead now,” said Moore....

Interested in knowing about conservative alternates to AARP.

Sometimes the worst drivers just never ask for directions. If they were truly lost, they’d never admit it. Sound familiar? The same principle often applies to financial fraud victims. They’re often just plain overconfident and won’t admit their lack of knowledge. According to the fine “Squared Away” blog of the Financial Security Project at Boston College and researchers from DePaul University in Chicago, “The seniors who are most confident of their knowledge about money and investments are also the most likely to fall victim to fraud.” Citing the DePaul study, the Center infers that the rising incidence of elder financial...

Okay here's an idea. Forget about paying for the contraceptives for those brash, "busy",child-bearing years, whiny 50 and under, female crowd. Hire the workplace experienced, life-experienced, in-need-of-employment over 50 crowd. We are, after all, the ones that need our social security paid for. We might need more time off due to arthritis and aches and pains, but at least the medication for those discomforts aren't against the consciences of businesses. Males young and old would be a good choice, too. Haven't heard them whining about having to pay for "birth" control.

Dear Patient, Going into the coming year, I have made a difficult but necessary determination that I will no longer be a Medicare provider. This will go into effect as of January 1, 2013. My decision is directly related to the continuing Medicare cuts and cumbersome requirements that Medicare has put into place. Regretfully, it is no longer feasible for us to participate with Medicare.

TAMPA — Dr. Inna Sheyner cupped her hand to speak into the ear of her 91-year-old patient, pledging loudly to answer all his questions about his constellation of problems, from heart failure to constipation, requiring a dozen medications. "The problem is, you're not taking half of that list," she gently scolded Everett Haehnel. "You know that, and I know that." He promised to do better. Sheyner offered to have a pharmacist help him, and put in orders for a physical therapy session at his Sun City Center home and a consult for dementia. Two University of South Florida medical students...

RUSH: A bunch of CEOs are in Washington. These people are beside themselves. They're having to hire outside consultants to pore through the Obamacare legislation and advise them, tell them what they have to do to comply. And they are asking for some kind of relief. You've got John Schnatter at Papa John's pizza, the Applebee's people and a number of other restaurant chains are saying, "We have no choice." If they're gonna keep our products priced where they are, which is the price they've all determined is the most sensible for profit stability and affordability for customers, they're gonna...

The classy left continues to outdo themselves with ads, this time one from MoveOn with old ladies threatening to c***punch Romney and “burn this mother f***er down” if Romney wins.Watch and be advised, CONTENT WARNING:

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- Longtime former U.S. Sen. George McGovern, the Democratic presidential candidate who lost to President Richard Nixon in a historic landslide, has moved into hospice care near his home in South Dakota, his family said Monday. "He's coming to the end of his life," his daughter, Ann McGovern, told The Associated Press.